Umsakazo Vinyl, CD & Tape 2 Items

• Fully licensed and restored from the original master in the Gallo Record Company vault. • Featuring Teaspoon Ndelu, West Nkosi and Michael Xaba on saxophones and Marks Mankwane on lead guitar. • Includes new liner notes and full recording personnel on sleeve rear. • Strictly limited run of 500 copies!

'Umsakazo Records is proud to present the first in a series of limited-edition replica 45rpm records. This collection of ‘seven singles’ has been carefully curated from key holy-grail recordings made during the golden age of South African township jive. It is fitting that the first in this series comes from the band so closely identified with the genesis of the style – the Makgona Tsohle Band, the hardest working session team in apartheid-era South Africa.

Under the guidance of talent scout and producer Rupert Bopape, the Makgona Tsohle Band (“The Band That Can Do Anything”) would underpin literally hundreds of recording sessions as the house band of Gallo Africa’s Mavuthela Music subsidiary from its launch in 1964 right through to 1977. This included all of the hit records made by Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, as well as classic hits from the Mthunzini Girls, Irene Mawela, Abafana Baseqhudeni, Lemmy ‘Special’ Mabaso, Reggie Msomi, Sipho Bhengu, Teaspoon Ndelu and so many more artists essential to the sound of urban jive music.

The Mavuthela operation formed the core of Gallo’s ‘black music’ production and, by the mid-1970s, accounted for as much as 20% of the organisation’s total income. Mavuthela’s market dominance was usually attributed to the resourcefulness of director Bopape, along with the well-oiled machine that was Gallo Africa. True enough, Mavuthela releases were of a high musical and technical quality and were always well publicised, be it through Gallo’s promotions department or the countless stage performances made by Mavuthela artists in South Africa and neighbouring countries.

But the Makgona Tsohle Band was the real secret to Mavuthela’s success. Its repertoire stretched from traditional sax and accordion jive right through to disco and ‘English pop’, and this 45rpm sees them effortlessly tackling the burgeoning 1970s Soweto soul-jazz sound. Ironically, the musical influence behind this recording was almost certainly Michael Xaba, the seasoned African jazz veteran who had scornfully referred to the newer strains of jive in the late 1950s as ‘mbaqanga’. As the Makgona Tsohle began making history as the country’s first all-electric ensemble, that epithet would resurface and was eventually ‘reclaimed’ as a term of endearment for the music they had largely created. By the 1970s, Xaba and a number of other longstanding jazzmen found themselves employed by Mavuthela as musical directors, under the initiative of Bopape who was not particularly musically inclined himself. The Makgona Tsohle Band members consequently gained a rich musical education and were fully equipped to move into arranging and producing roles when Bopape retired in 1977.

Issued only once on a 45rpm single in 1972 - and restored from the original master in Gallo’s Johannesburg tape vault - “Take Your Time” and “Marabi Blues” both offer new insight into the diverse catalogue of this greatest of all mbaqanga bands.'

A series of pivotal music projects during the early 1980s led to an explosion of authentic South African sounds sweeping the Western world. Among those projects were albums by Malcolm McLaren, Lizzy Mercier Descloux and Paul Simon; and reissues and compilations of essential African recordings on the UK-based Earthworks Records label. The common denominator was the genre Earthworks famously referred to as “The Indestructible Beat of Soweto” – mbaqanga music. It was therefore inevitable that the foremost exponents of that genre, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, would achieve international stardom before the decade ended.

In June 1988, Mahlathini and the Queens made their first visit to the United Kingdom. Hoping to ride the crest of a wave, concert promoters conceived a package show named after the seminal 1985 Earthworks compilation, The Indestructible Beat of Soweto. This would give British audiences a revealing insight into African music as never before – in addition to the headline performers were Philip Tabane and Malombo, Nothembi Mkhwebane, Sipho Mchunu, accordion player Mzwandile David and acrobatic dancer Lucas ‘Rubber Boy’ Kau. The rapturous reception led to an invitation back to the UK in November for further Indestructible Beat concerts, then Mahlathini and the Queens‘ first standalone UK tour in early 1989. Their stage act rarely dipped below excellent. The three Queens would fly onto the stage to herald the start of a very special evening of music and dance. The formidable Mahlathini, “The Lion of Soweto”, prowled around the stage imitating the ladies trademark mgqashiyo choreography, punctuated with whistles, hand claps and chants. Then the great groaner suddenly came alive, contorting, convulsing and leaping through exaggerated Zulu dance routines.

The Indestructible Beat of Soweto shows have long since passed into gig legend. None of those landmark concerts were ever made commercially available. Now, some 30 years later, Umsakazo Records proudly presents Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens’ entire Indestructible Beat set of 16 songs, handpicked from a number of different UK venues and all remastered from newly discovered cassette recordings. These were made at the mixing desk by David Barton, a photographer and music fanatic who travelled with the performers as they descended on unsuspecting audiences across the UK. Music Inferno: The Indestructible Beat Tour 1988-89 shines the spotlight once more on a truly joyous and frenetic concert experience by one of South Africa’s greatest musical exports.'